Fantasy rankings are always an interesting exercise. How much do you weigh a slump at the plate? Should an injury penalize a player? The answer to that is the oh-so-great “it depends.”

Is the slump over the past week or two? If yes, then the player may drop down in the rankings a bit but he won’t disappear, especially if he is a proven veteran. If it is a month-long slump, then that player is obviously not one of the top 25 players at that time. I don’t think anyone could realistically rank Francisco Lindor as a Top 25 shortstop during the first month of the season.

Now that we are two-plus months into the season, I look at players on three levels when I consider trading for them or adding them from the waiver wire. The obvious level is what are his overall statistics. I then look at what they have done in the last 14 days and 30 days.

If I’m going to add a player to one of my dynasty teams, I want production, not just this year but for the next year or two. Thus, I’ll go even deeper into the weeds and look at their exit velocities, hard-hit percentage, and strikeout percentage and compare them to past seasons. If a player’s counting stats look nice but his overall numbers are trending down, I’m going to think twice before trading assets for him or picking up a free agent and thus have to drop one of my current players.

As for injuries, if a player is out for 10 days, I’m not going to drop him out of the rankings unless he was already near the bottom of the rankings. But if a player is out for a considerable amount of time, then that will affect where he is ranked. That is why Corey Seager is not ranked right now. In real life, he is still a top 25 shortstop. No MLB would drop Seager from their roster because he is hurt. But in fantasy baseball, Seager is not helping anyone. He has not produced for weeks and it will be weeks before he hits the field – so he is not a top 25 fantasy shortstop right now.

But there are plenty of players who are not injured and who are not slumping at the plate. Which players have moved up the rankings or entered the Top 25? Let’s find out.